Hello blog world,
It’s been awhile. It’s ok…I’ve been busy. And you’re not on my high priority list.
With that said, I want to share with you a realization I have had recently. This summer, I had the opportunity to read and reflect on Tim Keller’s challenging book, “Counterfeit Gods”. Tim is a pastor in inner city New York and has written several books, including “The Reason for God”. I would label him as one of the sharpest people that I’ve ever heard speak.
The thesis of his book is to challenge the reader to reflect on their life and see what idols have taken over their lives. While there is a lot that can be said in that regards, the idol that I’ve realized that has been in my life for a long time, and one that totally permeates the culture, is the god of entertainment. A friend of mine recently observed that there is a difference between resting and being entertained. I think that is completely true; however, it had never occurred to me before that moment. I’ve always considered entertainment as more of a normal occurrence in life…rather than a privilege.
When I arrive home after a long day at work, I find myself wanting to relax and rest…which typically means me watching TV or surfing the Internet for the latest sports news. A “restful” weekend typically means one where I’ve watched college football on Saturday and NFL on Sunday. Recently, I spent a 3 day weekend with a friend doing very little else than watching football, movies, and playing Playstation 3 (NCAA Football of course!). While it was fun & relaxing, it definitely wasn’t restful and refreshing. During the same weekend, I avoided spending much time with the Lord…giving myself the excuse that I was on “vacation”.
With all that coming to mind over the past few days, I’ve realized that I value entertainment in my life much too highly. I absolutely LOVE watching sports and following along with them; however, they can’t and will never be the source of life.
A friend of mine recently tweeted: “The fact that we post and tweet more about sports than God on Sundays speaks volumes of our hearts.” At first, I had a knee-jerk reaction…I wanted to defend myself from his tweet. The very fact that his quote caused a defensive reaction in me testifies to the inward state of my heart.
So…why do I share all of this? Partly out of a narcissistic desire to be heard and gain attention (aren’t all blogs that way?)…and partly out of a personal conviction that has sprung up within me. How often do we rely on entertainment to get us through difficult times? I know that I’ve watched movies, played video games, or sporting events to provide me a place to “escape” from the real issues in my life.
My encouragement to you and to myself is twofold: Repent and believe the Good News that Jesus is the only true Life-giver, and that He absolutely desires and demands to be Lord.
That’s it.
January 9th, 2012 at 3:07 am
Fivezonex
Wonderful blog post, saw on
January 14th, 2012 at 4:19 am
Hard Day
It was quite a hard day for me yesterday, so I decided to take to piddeling around a lot online and rapidly found
January 17th, 2012 at 5:35 pm
My story about
I actually enjoyed reading it, you will be a great author.
January 18th, 2012 at 4:17 pm
My story about
This is a fantastic website and I can not recommend you guys enough.
January 21st, 2012 at 4:36 am
Great Content
Hmm my dog could have written better
January 21st, 2012 at 11:40 pm
Bing results
While browsing Bing I found this page in the search results and I didn’t think it match
January 22nd, 2012 at 11:59 am
My post about
This post is about our own site here
January 22nd, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Look at me
Thank you for your post!I have know your idea!
January 24th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Tumblr
Tumblr linked to this website
January 25th, 2012 at 3:25 am
Living a Healthy Lifestyle Through Diet and Exercise
I saw this really cool post today.
January 25th, 2012 at 1:30 pm
My story about
Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive learn anything like this before.
January 26th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
My story about
Youre so cool! I dont suppose Ive learn anything like this before.
January 29th, 2012 at 2:18 am
Sources
[…]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[…]…
January 31st, 2012 at 10:04 pm
News
I was reading the Yahoo news and I saw this really cool info
February 4th, 2012 at 2:25 am
Looking around
I love to surf in various places on the online world, regularly I will just go to Stumble Upon and read and check stuff out
February 4th, 2012 at 8:36 am
News
I was reading the Yahoo news and I saw this really interesting information
February 6th, 2012 at 8:59 pm
Useful and precise
Its quite hard to find super informative and accurate information but now I found
February 7th, 2012 at 7:22 am
Sites you may enjoy
while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look
February 9th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
My story about
I actually enjoyed reading it, you will be a great author.
February 10th, 2012 at 3:00 am
Wikia
Wika linked to this place
February 10th, 2012 at 4:58 am
Looking around
I love to surf around the online world, regularly I will just go to Digg and read and check stuff out
February 10th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Must read
I saw this very good post yesterday
February 11th, 2012 at 5:19 am
Great post
nice article that everyone have to read
February 11th, 2012 at 8:55 am
Nice article
everyone must visit this article
February 11th, 2012 at 6:40 pm
Yahoo News
When reading a lot on Google and of course Bing for the latest news today I happily noticed this
February 12th, 2012 at 2:23 pm
[…]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[…]
[…]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[…]
February 14th, 2012 at 9:08 am
Yahoo News
When reading a lot on Google and of course Bing for the latest news today I happily found this
February 15th, 2012 at 8:26 pm
News
I was reading slowly the Reddit news and info and I saw this really super interesting and super fresh topic
February 16th, 2012 at 4:33 am
Hard Day
It was a really really tough day for me yesterday, so I decided just now to take to piddeling around for a while online and very fast I realized
February 16th, 2012 at 7:38 am
Great post
nice text that you should read
February 18th, 2012 at 5:55 am
Yahoo News
When reading a lot on Google and of course Bing for the latest news today I happily noticed this
February 18th, 2012 at 11:27 pm
Just Looking
When we were surfing very much this Monday we saw a very good long article about
February 20th, 2012 at 7:55 am
Just Looking
When we were browsing very much this Monday we saw a very good long article about
February 22nd, 2012 at 4:01 am
Looking around
I am really into looking quite much around here the really vast internet, very much often I do usually just go ahead to Digg and very simply follow through
February 22nd, 2012 at 4:12 am
Yahoo News
When reading a lot on Google and of course Bing for the latest news today I happily noticed this
February 23rd, 2012 at 5:46 am
Best article
it’s really interesting aricle
February 25th, 2012 at 8:08 am
News
I was reading slowly the Reddit news and info and I saw this really super cool and super fresh info
February 25th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Hard Day
It was a hard day here yesterday, so I just took to messing around on the internet and found
February 26th, 2012 at 4:25 am
download music for free
[…]Here are a number of the web sites we suggest for our visitors[…]
March 1st, 2012 at 11:06 am
Useful and precise
It is incredibly super hard to find real honest and quality informative and accurate fresh info but today about noon I happily noted
March 1st, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Useful and precise
It is incredibly super hard to find real honest and quality informative and precise fresh information but today about noon I happily found
March 2nd, 2012 at 3:26 pm
About our own
Great post! I had not any information like this before.